October 28, 2004

Lost TV Show on ABC and The Green Lantern/Flash Connection

OK, all of you "Lost" groupies out there, it's time for another blog entry on our new favorite show. In my prior post on the show I mentioned that one of the producers said there is a connection between the show and a comic book. The comic book is Flash/Green Lanter: Faster Friends I and II. I can see I'm going to have to go out and buy the comic, but for now I have found a page that gives a quick summary of the comic. I may blog a bit about last night's episode later tonight or tomorrow, but for now, I figured this would give us all some food for thought. This comes from a website apparently devoted to the Green Lantern, and first saw this referenced here. Here's the summary.

Green Lantern/Flash: Faster Friends Part I - About fifty years ago an alien spacecraft fell to Earth and in the interests of "national security" the Flash (Jay Garrick) and the Green Lantern (Alan Scott) were called in to eliminate the threat. In they're absolute trust of the government (yes there was a time when people trusted the government, hard to believe isn't it?), they never thought that the alien might be peaceful, and attacked unquestioningly. Having defeated it, Flash and GL were pushed to the background, not even thanked. Realizing the mistake they had made, they hid the space ship in a place where no one would find it. Fifty years later, the alien escapes from the government lab that held it prisoner for so long, and he's pissed. Not only was he locked up for fifty years, but the tests run on him gave him an incurable cancerous disease. The first thing he does is kill the man in charge of his incarceration, then finds Jay and Alan in order to retrieve the ship. When the two disappear, their wives contact the most recent Flash and Green Lantern and tell them the story. The boys aren't happy to be working together, but concede that it's necessary to save Jay and Alan. Using his ring, Kyle is able to pinpoint Alan's signature and find the buried space ship. The alien apparently has some pretty powerful psionic abilities and forces Alan and Jay to protect him while he sends out a signal and sets the ship for self-destruct. Kyle and Wally manage to save Jay and Alan, but don't stop the ship from exploding. The boys seem to have saved the day, but the alien's final words hang heavy in their minds, something about it being "too late for all of us."

Flash/Green Lantern: Faster Friends Part II - After a quick recap of the last issue, we find that Jay Garrick is dying. His hyper-metabolism is actually causing a disease that has been slowly killing him, leading up until now. He has about twenty four hours to live. That doesn't stop him from finishing his duty, which at this point is to stop an alien invasion. The message that Alien X (the name of the alien from the previous issue) sent was an "invitation" to a parasitic race that apparently sweeps across worlds leaving nothing in their wake. Portals have been opening across the world and these aliens have been pouring out. Jay and Wally go back to the remains of Alien X's ship, only to meet Alan and Kyle. The younger pair of the quartet decide to go back through one of the portals and fight the aliens on their home turf. When they arrive, something weird happened, they end up in each other's costumes, thinking they're the other. These scenes are very amusing: Kyle thinking he's Wally making fun of the Green Lantern, and Vice Versa. Eventually with the help of Jay and Alan the boys realize who they are, and start kicking butt. They come across the mother alien and manage to drive it off, convincing it that it's actions are wrong. The alien also gives them transportation off the planet, in the form of four portals. They figure out that what happened earlier with the mistaken identities was because Kyle and Wally went through the same portal, thus the alien offered four portals, one for each of them. Alan suggests that if he and Jay enter one portal at the same time, some of his healthy cells would transfer over to Jay's. Jay suggests that this could work the other way as well and won't let Alan risk it. Alan goes ahead and risks it, and (surprise, surprise) it works, Jay is cured, and there are no ill-effects to Alan. Both Jay and Alan tell the boys that they hated each other when they started out, but became best friends, and if Kyle and Wally can overcome the friction that their relationship seems to be based on, they might just become the best team ever. That's saying a lot considering the legacy, first Alan and Jay, then Barry and Hal. Those are some tough acts to beat. These issues take place around the time of GL #83.

I love comic books and I'm liking Lost thus far. Much appreciate reading something like this every now and then. Also have to see if anyone has those issues. Here's a link for you if you want it: http://mysteriouscloakedfigure.blogspot.com/ Enjoy.